But if someone responds to and obeys His word, then God’s love has truly taken root and filled him. This is how we know we are in an intimate relationship with Him:

My loved ones, in one sense, I am not writing a new command for you. I am only reminding you of the old command. It’s a word you already know, a word that has existed from the beginning.

Anyone who loves his brother or sister lives in the light and will not trip because his conscience is clear.

I am writing to you, my children, because your sins have been forgiven by the authority of His name.

Don’t fall in love with this corrupt world or worship the things it can offer. Those who love its corrupt ways don’t have the Father’s love living within them.

Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us—He calls us children of God! It’s true; we are His beloved children. And in the same way the world didn’t recognize Him, the world does not recognize us either.

My loved ones, we have been adopted into God’s family; and we are officially His children now. The full picture of our destiny is not yet clear, but we know this much: when Jesus appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is.

So it is not hard to figure out who are the children of God and who are the children of the diabolical one: those who lack right standing and those who don’t show love for one another do not belong to God.

The central truth—the one you have heard since the beginning of your faith—is that we must love one another.

We know that we have crossed over from death to real life because we are devoted to true love for our brothers and sisters. Anyone who does not love lives among corpses.

Everyone who hates other members of God’s family is a murderer. Does a murderer possess the beautiful life that never ends? No.

We know what true love looks like because of Jesus. He gave His life for us, and He calls us to give our lives for our brothers and sisters.

If a person owns the kinds of things we need to make it in the world but refuses to share with those in need, is it even possible that God’s love lives in him?

My little children, don’t just talk about love as an idea or a theory. Make it your true way of life, and live in the pattern of gracious love.

My loved ones, if our hearts cannot condemn us, then we can stand with confidence before God.

His command is clear: believe in the name of His Son, Jesus the Anointed, and love one another as He commanded.

My loved ones, I warn you: do not trust every spirit. Instead, examine them carefully to determine if they come from God, because the corrupt world is filled with the voices of many false prophets.

My loved ones, let us devote ourselves to loving one another. Love comes straight from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and truly knows God.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Because of this, the love of God is a reality among us: God sent His only Son into the world so that we could find true life through Him.

This is the embodiment of true love: not that we have loved God first, but that He loved us and sent His unique Son on a special mission to become an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

So, my loved ones, if God loved us so sacrificially, surely we should love one another.

No one has ever seen God with human eyes; but if we love one another, God truly lives in us. Consequently God’s love has accomplished its mission among us.

We have experienced and we have entrusted our lives to the love of God in us. God is love. Anyone who lives faithfully in love also lives faithfully in God, and God lives in him.

This love is fulfilled with us, so that on the day of judgment we have confidence based on our identification with Jesus in this world.